We are a husband and wife running team, with about 20+ marathons between us. Until about 5 years ago, we laughed at the crazy people out running in sub-zero weather and driving rain.  Now we are them and loving every minute of frozen eyebrows and black toenails.  We started running to get fit.  But, now we run for the exhilaration of pushing the limits and showing our kids an active life.

We started Races2Remember as a way to help other people  express why they run.

We noticed a couple of years ago that runners (and walkers) spent a lot of time, Sharpies and duct tape writing things about themselves or the people they were racing for.  We came up with the idea of making something that people could use to put on their backs, a “Back Bib”.  It’s been moving to see some of the things that people are running for.  We know first-hand that almost everyone is running for “something.”

We have also been the novice runner who tried desperately to hold on to the pacer in our marathons who was running an even pace (needless to say, we ended up disappointed in the end!), or tearing off the boiler-plate pace bands given out at race expos.  We also spent endless hours tinkering with Excel making our own pace bands and trying to tape them up to keep them legible during the race.  Our local running group made us believers in the “Warm up slowly” pace strategy (and it has been adopted for our local marathon pacers).  We combined all this with our waterproof back bibs to  start making our “Pace Bands” for others. 

Our running friends share many stories before races about how they think about their “Pop” when they hit the wall and how he helps them through, or how they keep repeating words or thoughts that bring confidence, strength or relaxation.  We combined all these (and a pace band that Al wore in a race that just said “Run Dammit”) to create our Grace Bands.